10 Focus Tips For Perfectly Sharp iPhone Photos

1. Tap To Set iPhone Camera Focus

Does your subject sometimes look out of focus or blurred?
​Has the iPhone camera focused on the wrong part of the scene?
Getting the focus correct in your photos is a top priority.

Why?
Because our eyes naturally search for the sharpest point in an image.
If the main subject is out of focus, the viewer will become confused about where they should be looking.
But if your subject is in sharp focus, the viewer will be instantly drawn to that part of the scene.

So, how do you tell the camera which part of the scene you want in sharp focus?
Setting iPhone focus is actually very easy.
But it’s one of those hidden iPhone camera features that most people don’t even realize exists!

Here’s how to set the focus point in your iPhone photos:
Open the built-in iPhone Camera app and compose your photo.
Then simply tap on the screen where you want the focus to be. Usually, this would be on your main subject in the foreground.
A yellow box appears to show where the camera is focusing.

And that’s all there is to it. You’ve just learned how to adjust focus on iPhone!
If you wish, you can tweak the exposure (image brightness) after tapping to set focus.
To adjust exposure, swipe up or down on the screen. Swipe up to make the image brighter. Or swipe down to make it darker.

When you’re ready to take your photo, press the shutter button.
Because you tapped to set the iPhone focus, your subject will be perfectly sharp.

In the photo above, I tapped to set focus on the large flower on the left. If I hadn’t done this, the camera might have tried to focus on one of the other flowers in the scene.
So don’t forget:
Whenever you take a photo, think about which part of the scene you want in sharp focus.
Then tap to set the iPhone camera focus on that area.

If you do this, your subject will always be pin-sharp!

​2. Tap & Hold To Lock iPhone Focus

Tapping to set focus works well in most situations.
But there are times when this isn’t enough.
One situation is when there’s movement in the scene, such as people walking around in the background.

Even if you’ve tapped to set focus on your foreground subject, the camera might re-adjust the focus onto a person walking through the background.
Another situation is when you want to take several similar photos of the subject.
The problem with this is that as soon as you press the shutter button, the camera forgets where you focused in the previous shot. So you’ll have to tap to set focus again for each new photo.
Luckily, the iPhone camera offers an easy way to solve these problems!
You simply need to lock the focus.

Once focus is locked, you can take as many photos as you want and the focus will remain locked where you set it.
So, how do you lock the iPhone camera focus?
Instead of just tapping where you want to set focus, you need to tap and hold for a couple of seconds.
When you see AE/AF Lock in yellow at the top of the screen, focus is locked.

If necessary, adjust exposure by swiping up or down. Then take your picture.
You’ll notice that the yellow AE/AF Lock remains on the screen after you’ve taken your photo.
This means the focus and exposure are still locked on the same settings from the previous shot. So you can go ahead and take more photos without having to set focus and exposure again.
If you want to adjust exposure, you can do so without unlocking the focus.
When you want to unlock focus and exposure, simply tap anywhere on the screen.
As you can see, the iPhone camera focus lock is really useful.

Use it whenever you want to take several shots with the same focus setting. And use it to ensure the focus remains on your subject when there’s movement in the scene.
Locking focus is also great for street photography. Why? Because it allows you to set up the shot in advance.

Simply position yourself in a good spot where you know someone will walk into the frame. Lock focus at the point where you think someone will walk past. Adjust exposure if necessary. Then press the shutter as soon as someone walks by.

​3. Don’t Change Your Distance After Focusing

Here’s a little-known focus tip for you:
After you’ve set the iPhone camera focus, don’t change the distance between the camera’s lens and your subject.
In other words, don’t move towards or away from your subject.
Why is this important?
Because focusing works by setting the focus point at a particular distance from the camera. Anything in front of or behind this point may appear out of focus.

So, what happens if you set focus at a particular point and then you change the camera-to-subject distance?
Here’s the answer:
The subject that you originally focused on might not appear sharp.
Why? Because it’s no longer at the same distance from the camera.
In the example below, the flowers in the foreground are in sharp focus. That’s because I tapped on that area to set focus there.

But look what happened when I set focus on the foreground flowers and then took a few steps back:

Now everything is out of focus. That’s because I told my iPhone to focus at a certain distance from the camera. But then I changed that distance. And the camera is still trying to focus at the distance I initially set.
As you can see, it’s really important that you don’t change the camera-to-subject distance after setting focus.
​